The Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) has been conferred with the 5th CSR Impact Award in the environment category for its natural resource management initiatives under the CSR programmes. The Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Anant Kumar Hegde, presented the award at a glittering ceremony recently held at Delhi. Prashant Kumar Hota, the Group Head for CSR and Education along with Miriam Carter, the director of the OP Jindal Community College, received the award on behalf of the company. The Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Water Resources Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Dr Satya Pal Singh, was also present during the ceremony.
The JSPL has been awarded for implementation of integrated watershed development and WADI programmes in Odisha and Chhattisgarh in partnership with the NABARD. The winner for the awards was selected after a two-stage evaluation concluding with the jury round.
“Such recognitions will motivate us to do better,” said the chairman of JSPL, Naveen Jindal. Congratulating the team, the co-chairperson of JSPL Foundation, Shallu Jindal, said “Protection and sustainable management of natural resources has been a focused area for JSPL under its CSR activities. WADI and watershed development projects implemented by the company are models for holistic development of the community as well as for the holistic protection of the mother nature. The award will encourage us to explore replication of similar programmes in other deserving locations.”
After receiving the award Hota said, “It is a privilege to receive the award from two Union Ministers. JSPL has been working for the holistic development of the community in and around its operational areas. The WADI and watershed projects have truly been instrumental in bringing all-round development in select villages of the Angul district, Odisha and the Tamnar district, Chhattisgarh.”
Under the watershed development programme in Angul, a catchment of 4000 acres has been treated on a ridge-to-valley basis, benefiting 2,500 rural families. Bio-engineering interventions have been made for the control of soil erosion and the ground water recharge, benefiting 2,000 farming families and more than 250 underprivileged landless families by enhancing the farm income three times sustainably. Under the WADI programme in Tamnar, agro horti-silvi-pasteural orchards have been raised for 500 tribal families, thus improving their income and quality of life multifold.
Besides this, the company in its business locations, has undertaken more than 10 lakh community-driven plantation and excavated more than 200 ponds and water harvesting structures in the plant vicinity, creating a carbon sink and balancing the ecosystem.
The CSR Impact Awards is an initiative of NGOBOX to encourage companies, CSR foundations and CSR implementing agencies, to deliver high impact through CSR projects and adopt multi-stakeholder approach, leading to excellence in project outcomes. This initiative focuses on identifying high impact CSR projects in 14 categories at pan-India level. The awards seek to appreciate project specific impacts made by the organisations in particular thematic areas, to set benchmark in projects planning, identification and delivery of results.
